Where Is Your Mindset After Something Bad Happens To You?
Late in the 2016 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, Villanova blew a 10-point lead. With 4.7 seconds left, UNC hit a 3-pointer to tie the game. Villanova’s head coach, Jay Wright, called a timeout, and as his players walked to the huddle, they were all saying the same word: Attitude. “When I looked into the eyes of our players,” Wright writes in his book Attitude, “I saw no anger or regret. No one bemoaned [the UNC player’s] ‘lucky shot,’ or that any of our guys had failed to stop him from grabbing the pass that led to that shot, or anything else.” Instead, “they were all saying, ‘Attitude. Attitude. This is what we do. Attitude. This is what we do.’” With this mindset, the players returned to the court. Villanova’s Kris Jenkins inbounded the ball to Ryan “Arch” Arcidiacono. Arch dribbled up the left side of the court, crossed half court, cut right towards the 3-point arc, where he underhanded a pass to Jenkins, who caught the ball with 1.3 seconds left, and, in perfect rhythm, jumped then released the ball with 0.6 seconds, and hit a buzzer-beater to win the 2016 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. “It’s the most important aspect of our program,” Coach Wright explains in his book, Attitude. “When we break a huddle, we say ‘1, 2, 3, Attitude.’” The test of Attitude, Wright taught his players, is: “Where is your mindset after something bad happens to you?” That’s the theme of this SIX at 6…
Decide The End Of The Story
On September 9, 1965, Stockdale was flying an A-4 Skyhawk during a mission over North Vietnam when his plane was hit by enemy fire. He was shot down near the city of Thanh Hóa and ejected from his aircraft, parachuting into a small village where he was immediately captured by the North Vietnamese. Soon after, he was taken to Hỏa Lò Prison, the notoriously worst of the thirteen North Vietnamese prison camps. Hỏa Lò, which translates to “fiery furnace” or “Hell’s hole,” lived up to its name. It was a brutal dungeon where captives were subjected to relentless physical and psychological torture. Asked how he survived the seven years of unimaginable horrors, Stockdale said, “I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.” He was then asked, Who didn’t make it out of Vietnam? “Oh, that’s easy,” Stockdale said. “The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.” What you need after something bad happens to you, Stockdale said, is to blend optimism with realism. “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
Good luck? Bad luck? It’s impossible to know
The origins of this story are difficult to trace. It evokes an era where farming was the primary livelihood, horses were vital to do this farming, and conscription for military service worked just like in the Mighty Ducks movies where if the team captain shows up in roller blades at your home, your job, or while you’re eating lunch: stop what you’re doing because the team is getting back together and you’re on it, effective immediately. So the story takes place sometime between ancient times (200-ish BC) and the late medieval period (1500s). Most often, it’s set in China, although in some tellings, the samurai show up. So…in China or Japan somewhere anywhere within a 1700-year interval, there was a farmer. One day, the farmer’s one and only horse runs away. The farmer’s neighbors come by to say they can’t believe it, “What bad luck!” The farmer shrugs, “Good luck? Bad luck? It’s impossible to know.” A few days later, the horse returns with a herd of wild horses, and the neighbors swing by again, “What good luck!” The farmer shrugs, “Good luck? Bad luck? It’s impossible to know.” A few days later, the farmer’s son is trying to corral the wild stallions when one bucks and kicks the son, breaking his leg. The neighbors, right on time, “What bad luck!” The old farmer shrugs, “Good luck? Bad luck? It’s impossible to know.” A few days later, the Han army or the Kamakura Samurai or some other large military unit shows up at the farm and demands that the son (Dad’s too old) stop whatever he’s doing because there’s about to be some bloody war, and they need the son to take up arms or sword or bow and arrow: he’s heading to the front lines. But when they see the son’s broken leg, they ride or walk away, and instead of probably getting killed, the son stays on the farm. Good luck? Bad luck?
I Would Have Made A Movie That Wouldn’t Have Been As Successful
In Jaws, you don’t see the shark until 1 hour and 21 minutes into the movie. That wasn’t the plan. The script called for the mechanical shark, affectionately nicknamed “Bruce,” to be featured prominently throughout the film. When Bruce was tested in a Hollywood fresh water tank, it worked. However, when the production moved to the Atlantic Ocean, Bruce broke—the salt water corroded its electrical components. So director Steven Spielberg had to film the movie without his main character. Instead of focusing on what he didn’t have, Spielberg reimagined the movie, shifting the terror from direct encounters with the shark to the unseen menace lurking beneath the waves. He relied on the audience’s imagination, using clever camera angles and the ominous presence of the ocean itself to build suspense. Spielberg later reflected, “That’s what turned the movie into more of an exercise in suspense than just a horror film…Jaws is scary because of what you don’t see, not because of what you do.” When asked if the movie would have been different had the shark functioned properly, Spielberg was said, “I would have made a movie that wouldn’t have been as successful…think the film would have made half the money had the shark worked” Jaws had a record $7 million opening weekend and grossed $100 million in its first 59 days, passing The Godfather as the highest-grossing film in history.
And Beautiful Things Can Come From That
On sets shooting movies like The Dark Knight or Inception, the director Christopher Nolan has a reputation among filmmakers for getting incredibly lucky with the weather. Nolan himself says it’s not true. “It’s completely untrue,” Nolan said. “I’m very unlucky with the weather. But I made a decision early on that whatever the weather is, I will shoot.” Even after something seemingly bad happens, “We just shoot. Whether it’s pouring rain or the sun is out. And beautiful things can come from that.”
You Don’t Control What Happens
“The fact is,” Jay Wright writes, “none of us control what happens to us in life—but we do control our responses to those circumstances…no matter how tough it gets or how much of a challenge you face in the final 4.7 seconds of a game.” No matter how brutal the facts of your current reality. No matter if it’s pouring rain or the sun is out. Good luck or bad luck. Shark or no shark. You control your responses. You decide the end of the story.